The programme, which is co-hosted by the Committee for Overseas Vietnam Affairs (COVA) and Vietnam Television (VTV), will include special features made by VTV in many places around the globe. In addition to this programme, a music gala will be held by COVA and the RASS company on January 13, 2009.

At the gala, COVA will present the Foreign Minister’s certificate of merit to outstanding overseas Vietnamese enterprises that have made major contributions to the Fund in Support of overseas Vietnamese.

The result of the third excavation is the biggest archaeological discovery about the number of such tombs found in the central region so far, said archaeologists from the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology and the provincial Revolutionary-Historical Museum.

Director of the Thua Thien Hue Revolutionary-Historical Museum Van Dinh Thanh said that the tombs with four different shapes were buried in a vertical position with different distances and depths.

Archaeologists found more than 1,300 artefacts made of iron, bronze, stone, glass and porcelain at the two previous excavations in the Con Rang relics.

The figure included more than 40,000 foreign tourists who partly helped the province’s tourism revenues increase by 32 percent.

To attract holidaymakers, local authorities have poured huge sums of investment into the construction of roads, particularly those connecting with tourist sites.

An Giang has adopted a lot of incentives to encourage businesses both at home and abroad to invest in restaurants and hotels to supply better services to visitors.

In another move, the province has hosted a series of festivals and trade fairs in addition to tourism promotion activities.

This figure is expected to increase to 1.5 million by the end of this year.

China is topping the list of Hanoi ’s tourist markets, with visitors from the country representing 12 percent of the total number of foreign visitors. It was followed by France, Australia, Japn, the Republic of Korea and the US.

The number of domestic visitors to Hanoi has also increased sharply since the city was expanded in August, reaching 4.9 million over the first nine months of this year. The capital expects to receive a total of 7.75 million Vietnamese visitors during 2008.

The city’s expansion has enabled the Hanoi tourism sector to develop its services, launching new tours to eco-tourism sites, craft villages and cultural and historical sites around the region.